


Hidden Scars

by RedRobyn2



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Family, Family Bonding, Fluff, Gen, Hurt Percy Jackson, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, One Shot, Percy Jackson Needs a Hug, Post-The Heroes of Olympus, they are all friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 08:40:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28757493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedRobyn2/pseuds/RedRobyn2
Summary: During the Argo II's monthly reunion party they see some suspicious scars on Percy, ones that don't look like they came from monster fighting. But where did they come from? Was Percy's childhood as great as they thought it was?Lots of comfort and family bonding, plus discussion of past quests (because we all want everyone else to know what Percy has done).
Relationships: Annabeth Chase & Percy Jackson & Grover Underwood, Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Clarisse La Rue/Chris Rodriguez, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Jason Grace & Percy Jackson, Nico di Angelo & Jason Grace & Thalia Grace & Percy Jackson & Hazel Levesque, Nico di Angelo & Percy Jackson, Nico di Angelo & Thalia Grace & Percy Jackson, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace, Percy Jackson & Everyone, Percy Jackson & The Seven, Thalia Grace & Percy Jackson
Comments: 2
Kudos: 112





	Hidden Scars

**Author's Note:**

> I'm cross-posting this from ff.net and Wattpad (finally) so a few notes first:  
>  This was written before Trials of Apollo so nothing there is relevant bar Leo and Calypso are back at camp already and solangelo is a thing.  
> WARNING: Implied/Referenced abuse.  
> The monthly Argo reunion parties are real, Percy mentions it in Percy Jackson and the Greek Heroes. He also mentions that he and Jason are really close, so yeah.
> 
> Summary: At the monthly Argo reunion party, which includes the Seven, Coach Hedge, Nico, Reyna, Calypso and Thalia, they decide to go swimming, but everyone sees a lot of scars on Percy that are obviously not from monster fighting. So how did he really get them and was his childhood as good as they assumed it was?  
> This takes place in early September, so about two months after the second Giant War.
> 
> Hope you enjoy, please tell me what you think.
> 
> Robyn

Percy's day really hadn't been going well so far, but this, this took the icing of the cake. And the cherry of the cake. You know what? Maybe it just took the whole cake.

It was the second monthly Argo reunion party and everyone, meaning the Seven (including Leo, who had shown up with Calypso just over a month ago. Thankfully there were no hard feelings between Calypso and himself.) Nico, Reyna, Calypso, Coach Hedge (who was now a very proud father) and Thalia. The whole gang was excited for the last chance to meet up before they all split ways, either to go to school, college, back to the Hunters or running a camp.

Why had his day been going so badly? I hear you ask.

Well, you try dealing with making a peace treaty between the two camps, helping some of the newer kids, teaching three classes, working on yet another book, dealing with Drew, stopping infighting and trying to find time to spend with your friends then see what your day is like. (He really needed to find more time for sleep, he was exhausted, and he probably should be eating more as well - but he didn't have time for that).

Anyway, back to the reunion party.

The reunion 'party' was pretty much just a fancy name for a get-together, a chance for them to escape their duties and find comfort from those that understood. They usually spent the time playing games, talking, sharing stories and eating junk food (that the Hermes cabin snuck into camp for them). Though they had all made an agreement to never again give Leo and Nico skittles *Shudder*. It was bad enough last time.

Thankfully everyone got along ... well mostly. If you don't count all the minor arguments between Nico and Thalia that is, it was normal cousin banter anyway.

Last month they had simply celebrated on the Argo II, which now stood proudly in Camp Half Blood. But this time someone *cough Leo cough* had suggested they go swimming in the sea, enjoying the brilliant weather and the fact that most campers were busy in classes or other activities. That meant they had the whole beach to themselves.

Unfortunate for Percy everyone had agreed, some more reluctantly than others, and they had all automatically assumed that he would love to go swimming. Which fair enough, he was a child of the sea god. Usually Percy would be up for it, but since the war and almost being drowned multiple times and his claustrophobia getting worse, he had taken to trying to avoid the water. He hadn't really shared that fear with anyone, apart from Annabeth - he couldn't really keep anything from her.

But it seemed like this time, his very limited luck had run out. Nico, Thalia, Jason and Hazel had all been assured that his dad wouldn't try to kill them the second they touched the water (not that he had ever tried to do so before) and everyone had changed into more beach appropriate apparel. They were all ready to go have fun in the water, it was a really hot day and the water looked really cool and refreshing.

He had gotten changed like everyone else; blue swimming trunks and a plain grey t-shirt hung loosely over his thin, malnourished swimmers body (he was trying to hide that unlike Annabeth he wasn't getting much better, they'd both been trying to put more weight on after ... the pit). His messy black hair hung limply in front of his sea green eyes that gleamed with an edge of laughter, adding to the effect of the large smile on his face.

If anyone had looked closer, they would have realized both the smile and light in his eyes were fake.

Percy had planned to stay on the actual beach to stop his fear of drowning overwhelming him. But that wasn't the complete reason he had been worried about swimming, no, he was worried about what his friends would say about all his scars, especially the scars that did not look like they were from monster fighting. And they would be right with those thoughts. A lot of his scars were not from monster fighting, but rather from years of abuse from Gabe.

Gabe. He despised the name and yet he was still scared of the man, his voice and smell plagued his dreams. Yes, the fearless, two time hero of Olympus, son of Poseidon and a bunch of other stupid titles was terrified of a mortal. A smelly, dirty, walrus of a man. You couldn't really blame him fully though for being terrified, the man, though he can be barely called that, had abused him since he was four right up until he was turned to stone. Eight years of pain, eight years of keeping quite, eight years of abuse.

That was one of his deepest, darkest secrets. One he wanted no one to know. He had promised himself years ago that he would never tell anyone, too scared that Gabe would hurt his mother. When he arrived in Camp, he didn't want to appear weak and he had just never been able to admit that he had been hurt as well, scared of what they would have thought of him. As he'd gained more of a reputation at camp he really couldn't afford to be weak, during the wars the campers had needed someone to look up to, and he didn't want anyone to use that against him.

His plan hadn't worked, not at all. Honestly he should think about adding it to his list of Seaweed Brain's Worst Plans EVER, In The History Of Plans. Or SBWPE,ITHOP for short. Huh, maybe he should think about shortening that name further it was bit of a mess to say.

As soon as they had gotten down to the beach, most of the group had run into the cool water. It was a refreshing relief on such a hot day, and when he said hot day he meant scorching, fry your eyebrows off hot. When he had hovered on the beach everyone had given him weird looks, but seeing as all four other Big Three kids were in the water and yet the son of Poseidon wasn't, that was to be expected. The only person not actually in the water was Coach Hedge.

He had quickly put on a huge smile, given a truly horrible joke and ran into the water to the waist. He'd have to be more careful if he didn't want to be called out on his behaviour. Act natural, he reprimanded himself (see, having Annabeth as a girlfriend did mean he had learnt some stuff - he knew long words). Wait...what the Tartarus was natural?

Percy joined the others in splashing around, forcing himself to create shapes in the water to entertain the others. Eventually he was dragged into a splash fight. It was Nico, Jason, Leo and Percy against Thalia, Piper, Frank and Annabeth. Reyna, Calypso and Hazel had stayed out off the fight. The fight ended with neither team really winning, but both teams utterly soaked to the skin.

Percy gave a real smile, maybe things weren't too bad after all. It was nice to have a break with friends.

"Hey Percy! Why don't you take your t-shirt off?" Jason shouted drawing looks from the others.

He just had to jinx himself, didn't he?

Percy looked nervously at his friends then started to take his top off, there was no way to avoid it. Maybe if he acted nonchalant no one would ask any questions? He quickly pulled his shirt off and ducked under the water. It was a battle of fear. Drowning vs his friend's disappointment. Which fear was worse, which would win. Friends won.

He hoped the water would cover his scars, but as he should of guessed Lady Luck was really not in his favour (he had pissed off Nike too much for that to ever happen). The water was bright, clean and completely see through. Meaning all his friends could now see his patch work of scars that criss-crossed his body.

"Man, Percy. What the hell happened to you? Some of those scars definitely aren't from monster fighting." Jason's expression turned to a mix of shock and concern at seeing his friend's scars. He had been the closest to Percy at the time so had the best view of his scars. Everyone else had similar looks on their faces, worried and yet curious about what had happened to their friend.

"What are you talking about Jason? Of course they are from monster fighting. We all have plenty of scars." Percy put on a fake grin and tried to play it off. Unfortunately, thus time everyone could see through his fake smile.

"Percy. Are you okay? I was with you when you went on most of your quests, I don't recognize half of those scars." Annabeth said, wading through the water heading towards her boyfriend. This was bad, with Annabeth on his case he was never going to be able to play this off.

His eyes darted around at his friends expressions and stances, he was cornered.

He did the only thing he could think of.

He ran.

Percy splashed through the water (thankful that he had still been in the shallow water), dashing across the beach and sprinted across camp ground back to his cabin, quickly locking the door, ignoring the shouts of his friends and questioning glances be received as be ran. He let out a deep breath and leaned back against the locked door. He slipped down the door until he was practically collapsed on the floor. How could he have run? They would be even more suspicious now!

"Percy. Are you alright? Can you open the door please?" Annabeth's voiced drifted through the door, signalling the arrival of all his friends. Well possibly ex-friends after all, why would they want to be friends with him after this?

He stayed silent, trying desperately to control his breathing. After a couple of minutes he heard Annabeth sigh and turn to talk to someone else, but the actual words were too faint to hear.

"Percy, open the door. We just want to talk." Piper's voice, laced with charm speak danced into the cabin. Percy tried to fight it but unwillingly stood up and opened the door. Having done what he was told too he was released and moved to sit on his bed, knowing he wouldn't be able to escape their questions now.

The seven, Nico, Reyna, Calypso, Coach Hedge and Thalia crowded into the cabin followed swiftly by Katie, The Stolls, Clarisse, Chris, Will, Rachel and Grover who had obviously been drawn over by all the shouting. Brilliant, because this couldn't get worse - he just had to share his embarrassment and weakness with half the camp.

They all looked awkwardly at him sitting on the bed with his head down, looking at the floor. His scars were still un covered and very noticeable. They crowded into the cabin, best as they could - sitting on the floor or leaning against the wall, finding any space they could and settling. Annabeth chose to sit down right next to him on the bed. She put an arm around him, hoping to comfort him, it was also a good way to make sure he couldn't run again.

"Percy, what's wrong? Why did you run?" She asked gently. He didn't answer, staring down at his lap, hands fidgeting away.

"It's to do with your scars, isn't it? Percy I know you and I know you didn't get all of them from monster fighting. Please, I'm worried for you." She prodded gently again.

"I'm just clumsy, it's nothing to worry about." Percy desperately tried to play it off as a joke, laughing a clearly fake laugh even to his own ears.

"No one's that clumsy, not even you Kelp Head." Thalia said, unusually soft and kind. He still refused to look up, he didn't want to see anyone's expressions. Silence lingered, no one sure what to say, the person who broke it was unexpected.

"Who hurt you? I know the signs of abuse when I see it. Who was it?" Clarisse grunted, causing everyone to look at her shocked.

Percy looked at her, how did she know?

"My mother got drunk a lot after my dad left, she started to take it out on me, until I ran away and found camp." Clarisse answers the silent question. "It wasn't that bad, just a bit or punch or kick here but still..." She trailed off. The others looked at her with a bit more respect and Chris put an arm around her shoulders for support. She glared at anyone who tried to offer pitying glances.

Silence rang in the cabin for several more minutes. Percy's leg started bouncing, nervous with the silence and unsure how to deal with the new information about his frenemy (friend).

"My first stepfather." Percy whispered. "My stepfather would hit me if I did anything wrong. He would do it for fun sometimes, he would hit me, punch me, kick me, burn me, use a knife, hit me with a belt. Whatever he wanted to do." His voice turned near hysterical near the end. He nodded his head in understanding to Clarrise.

Everyone in the room looked at him in shock. He had been abused. Percy, the person who was always there for you, the person who could get you to smile through the worst times, was abused by his stepfather.

"Percy, why didn't you tell me or anyone?" Annabeth asked trying to get over her shock and horror. Clutching Percy tight to her, attempting to comfort both of them.

"He threatened to hurt my mom if I told anyone and even when he was gone, I was scared and I thought you would be disappointed or hate me." His voice was quiet but it echoed around the room. He gave a hollow laugh. "Turns out he was so bad that his smell hid me from monsters, it was my fault we had to put up with him."

"We could never hurt or be disappointed in you, Perce." Grover said, ashamed that he hadn't even known his best friend had been abused. "It wasn't your fault Percy, he was at fault, no one should ever hurt a kid."

"Yeah, Kelp Head if anything it makes you stronger in my mind." Jason smiled shakily up at his cousin, using his sister's favourite nickname for his cousin, he wasn't sure how to deal with this, he'd grown up mostly safe and protected at Camp Jupiter.

"How long?" Nico asked suddenly. "How long did he abuse you?" Percy gave a small smile to himself, after Nico had told him about his old crush on him they got along a lot better and all five cousins were like siblings. Percy and Thalia had both helped Nico and Will finally start dating, they'd even given Will the 'if you hurt him talk'.

"Since I was four, he started about a month after he married my mom."

"I'm going to kill that monster, then make sure he suffers for eternity!" Will squeezed his boyfriend's hand to help calm him down.

"Yeah, Kelp-for-brains where is he? I'm going to kill him for hurting my cousin!" Thalia declared, gaining quite a few cheers in response.

"He's already dead, he met Medusa's head." Percy gave a genuine smile. "I think he's in some museum in New York."

"Look, it isn't a big deal, lots of people have bad stories before camp. I'm sorry for ruining the party, but I've got to go." Percy sighed picking up his already packed bag and walking to the big house than across the border to wait for his mom. He'd been planning to enjoy the party before leaving to visit his mom for the week (he still had a few weeks before school started and he was needed at camp but he also needed the break and wanted to visit his mum, Paul and baby Estelle).

"Hey, I've got a plan!" Annabeth declared out of the blue, once her boyfriend was out of sight. Her grin was border line evil and made the rest of the occupants of the cabin lean back a bit in fright. No one had moved after Percy's hasty departure, still in shock by all the revealed information of the day.

* * *

The next weekend, when Percy finally returned camp in the early afternoon, he couldn't find any of his friends. He made his way to his cabin first and dumped his bag of supplies for the weekend. Still no one appeared, he was hoping to avoid any awkward conversations but he still wanted to see his friends. Seeing his family had helped him calm himself down. He decided to take a stroll around camp and try to find them, with no luck. He started asked people if they had seen anyone and stopped to help out some of the younger or newer campers. He was surprised that no one was around, while many of them had duties they'd made sure to spend time together and made plans to meet up again this weekend.

Eventually, just as it was starting to get dark, and he was really starting to give up for the day. He found Nyssa who was the first person to have any idea about his missing friends (even Chiron didn't have any clue - yes, he'd been that desperate). She informed him that they had been heading into the forest last time she had seen them. Apparently she'd asked and Leo had told him they were going to a clearing near Juniper's tree.

He thanked her, before jogging towards the forest. He had no idea why his friends were hiding in the forest and was now far too curios for his own good. He kept his hand in his pocket, ready to retrieve Riptide and fight any monsters he came across.

As he walked through the forest be couldn't help how his thoughts started to spiral. Were his friends hiding from him? Or were they doing something else? Or were they all werewolves and they met up in the forest at night to change then howl at the- oops getting off track, stupid ADHD. Easy to say, he was starting to panic. He stopped in the tree surrounding the clearing in shock.

As Nyssa had said they were all out here. The group of 15 demigods, 2 satyrs, 1 Hunter, a formerly imprisoned Titaness and their resident Oracle sat around a small camp fire, sitting on logs and stumps, roasting marshmallows, making smores, happily talking and laughing.

Will and Nico were eating marshmallows snuggled up by the fire. Thalia, Annabeth, Jason and Piper were talking and laughing on the other side of the fire. The Stolls and Leo were whispering to each other, no doubt planning pranks, Katie and Rachel making smores and glancing wearily at the mischievous boys, Frank was showing Hazel how to make smores, Clarisse and Chris were cuddling near the fire, Reyna and Calypso sat chatting quietly and Grover and Coach Hedge were discussing something, probably nature related.

Percy smiled at his friends then turned around to leave, not wanting to disturb them. He hadn't seen them so relaxed or happy in months. He took one step back into the forest towards camp before being stopped by a silver arrow suddenly whistling past his ear hitting the tree next him.

"Don't even think about it Kelp Head. You are part of our family too." Thalia's voice caused him to stop, or maybe it was the arrow being shot at him.

He turned around to see everyone looking at him, smiling openly, telling him he was welcome to their little get together. He smiled a genuine smile (one of the few not targeted at his family or Annabeth) and walked over to sit next to Annabeth and Thalia, across the campfire from Nico and Will. His girlfriend immediately put her arm under his elbow, burying herself into his side, looking up at him with a smile. Jason and Thalia tried to pulled him into their conversation (concerning what was better - Greeks or Romans - they were about the only two who could safely argue that point without trying to kill each other), but he ducked out fearing for his own safety of he said the wrong thing.

Instead he spent the time listening to Annabeth discuss her cousin, she was going to try and find him soon, apparently he had run away from home awhile ago (guess that ran in the family - not that he said that out loud, he wasn't stupid), and she was now trying to track him down. Then Grover moved over to Percy's over side (having finished his conversation with Coach Hedge who had moved to talk to Reyna and Calypso surprisingly). Thalia moved over to allow the Satyr a space on the log, still stuck in conversation with her brother (now comparing monster stories) as Annabeth handed both Percy and Grover marshmallows, already on a stick ready for toasting.

Grover grinned at the pair. "I never thought we would be here. Do you remember our first quest?" That drew everyone's attention, conversations paused to listen to this new topic of interest. The three of them rarely talked about what actually happened on their quests, Chiron knew the most but they never even told him the full details.

"Gods, we were so young. Absolutely no idea what we were doing." Annabeth grinned, looking back they seemed so stupid - she'd brought a book in case they got bored for gods sake.

"You two spent the whole time fighting or flirting. Drove me insane for years!" Grover moaned, drawing nods from the campers who had been around at the time.

"We weren't that bad G-man." Percy protested, drawing many a raised eyebrow. He raised his hands in the universal 'I surrender' position, knowing he wasn't going to win that battle.

"What happened?" Hazel asked from her position cuddled next to Frank.

"What do you mean, Hazel?" Percy asked confused by the question.

"Your first quest? What were you doing? What happened? How old were you?" Hazel explained, questions tumbling one after another. The rest of the people around the campfire nodded on agreement.

"Come on Prissy. We want details, you never tell us what actually happens on your quests." Clarisse added, arms crossed but not glaring for once in her life.

The original trio shared a glance, before Percy spoke up again with a grin. "I'm pretty sure you don't want us sharing all the details Clarisse, especially concerning our second quest." He got a glare from Clarisse from that as Annabeth and Grover tried to hide their chuckles and the rest of the group looked on confused.

"As for your questions Hazel. We were 12 at the time, Percy had just arrived at camp for the first time after beating the Minotaur. Zeus's lighting bolt had been stolen and he thought Poseidon planned it, then Percy shows up and gets claimed and Zeus thinks he has his thief. Chiron sent us to find the real thief, who at the time we believed was Hades. Turns out Ares had helped the actual thief and had also stolen Hade's helm, which would have been nice to know before going to the underworld." She shared a grin with Percy and Grover. She was still reluctant to talk about Luke though.

"Your first monster was the Minotaur?!" Jason asked incredulous, the whole quest seemed insane in fact and most of the people around the camp fire (who weren't already aware) were gaping.

Percy grinned at his cousin, twirling Riptide in pen form in his hand. "No, my first monster was a fury - I'm pretty sure Mrs Dodds still hates me." He ignored his cousin joking on thin air.

"She definitely does." Nico confirmed.

"That was a fun quest despite the few things that went wrong." Grover sighed, remembering fondly as he ate a tin can.

Annabeth and Percy looked at him incredulous. "Everything went wrong. We lost our supplies and got lost on the first day!" Annabeth pointed out.

"And losing five days of travel in Las Vegas." Percy added, then having thought of something grinned. "Although, looking back it was funny to see Annabeth play ball with Cerberus." Grover nodded in agreement as Annabeth muttered about visiting soon.

The rest of the group stared at the trio, looking more shocked as the conversation continued. "Annabeth did what?!" Thalia asked looking at said demigod.

"Plan A didn't work and I had a rubber ball so ..." Annabeth shrugged, purposely nonchalant. "The most impressive thing on that quest, aside from our naivety, was Percy fighting Ares and winning." Annabeth nudged her boyfriend in the arm, he rolled his eyes in response but grinned goofily at her.

"He did what?!" Frank asked, looking scandalised.

"Yeah, that's why he hates me and I don't get on with him, hence the whole Mars thing." Percy nodded at the Romans who had been present for Mars' appearance after the war games.

"Looking back it was our easiest quest." Grover munched thoughtfully on his tin can as the other members of the quest nodded alongside him.

"Going on a quest to the underworld to find one of the world's most dangerous weapons and prevent world war 3 was your easiest quest?" Katie asked arms waving in the air trying to express her disbelief, voicing the thoughts of many of the group. The trio just shared a look before nodding with matching grins.

"How many quests have you been on?" Leo asked, hands currently fidgeting something, building away as always.

Percy bit his lip trying to think. "Like five big ones but also lots of little ones I guess, plus the two wars. Not all of them have technically been mine, I snuck out a couple times." The group continued to needle them for details, this was the most talkative they had ever been about them and they were curious.

"My second summer of camp we went to the Sea of Monsters to get the Golden Fleece to heal Camp's borders as Thalia's tree had been poisoned." Percy started explaining but was interrupted.

"You were a tree?" Reyna asked Thalia as the group collectively turned to look at the hunter.

"Yeah, so what?" Thalia grinned. Annabeth rolled her eyes at the typical answer from her older sister figure.

"Anyway." Annabeth continued on for Percy. "Clarisse was officially assigned the quest but we snuck out (Percy, Tyson and I) as Grover was trapped in Polyphemus's island where the fleece was. Fun fact the fleece is Percy's brother." She grinned at her boyfriend.

"The ram! The ram was technically my brother not the fleece!" He complained, she just stuck her tongue out at him as the others laughed. He rolled his eyes before continuing the story. "We ran into Clarisse after an unfortunate meeting on an enemy ship." He did his best to not look at Chris's face, he wasn't sure they'd ever told the other demigod that they had seen him.

"I saved you idiots from a Hydra." Clarisse butted in, arms crossed as her boyfriend rolled his eyes unseen beside her.

"Yeah than you blew up the ship trying to get into the Sea of Monsters and we got separated." Annabeth added, ignoring Clarisse. "Percy and I had a few more incidents-."

"Cough, sirens, cough."

"Oh shut up Seaweed Brain, or do you want me to share our time at CC's Spa?"

"You wouldn't dare!" Percy sat up, narrowing his eyes at his girlfriend's smirk. She absolutely would and they both knew it. Then he remembered something and he whipped round to face Reyna mouthing 'sorry' for bringing up back memories. Reyna just nodded back at him, she was happy where she was now and had (mostly) gotten over them releasing the pirates.

Annabeth nudged him as she continued on. He raised an eyebrow at her, curious to see how much se would reveal. "We made it to the island to rescue Grover who was only alive, by the way, because Polyphemus thought he was a female cyclops so was trying to marry him!" The group was silent for a second as they took that in before collapsing in laughter, drowning out Grover's embarrassed shout of "Annabeth!"

When the laughter calmed down finally, Percy was the one to continue, purposely not meeting Clarisse's angry glare daring him to tell them. "Oh it gets better. Clarisse had made it to the island before us and revealed that Grover was a male satyr so Polyphemus decided they would eat Grover at his and Clarisse's wedding." The laughter echoed through the darkening clearing, even louder than the first time. Clarisse glared angrily at Percy before her chuckling boyfriend clamed her down, stopping her from getting up to attack the other.

Grover rolled his eyes at the pair but was chuckling with the group, thinking back it was kind of funny. "We sent Clarisse ahead with the fleece, thankfully, as we were attacked by the enemy ship and had to be rescued by the Party Ponies but we made it back to camp eventually and the fleece healed the borders." Grover finished up, ignoring the Stoll's shout of "Party Ponies!"

"You're forgetting the part where the tree spat Thalia out as an unfortunate side affect." Percy added, teasing his cousin who rolled her eyes at him, leaning over Grover to give him a small shock. Worth it. "That winter we met Nico." Percy leaned in, pretending to look around as if he was about to share a secret. "He was an adorable hyper kid, who played mythomagic and asked constant questions." Nico groaned as everyone grinned at him, hiding his face in his hands.

Thalia decided to take over the story telling. "We had to free Artemis and Annabeth who had been captured by the Titan Atlas." She didn't want to share much more than that, it hadn't been a very nice quest - between losing Bianca and Zoe, and everything with Luke as well and being tempted with power. "I became a hunter at the end of the quest."

"You forgot Apollo's terrible haiku's and your brilliant driving of the sun chariot." Percy grinned, leaning away so his cousin couldn't shock him again.

"And you forgot the fact you met the monster everyone was looking for and forgot to tell anyone." Grover added. "And you named him Bessie!"

"I didn't know what he was plus he was a water-cow-snake, Bessie seemed like a good cow name." Percy shrugged. Everyone was watching the three converse like it was a tennis match, eager to pick up details.

The three suddenly shared a look, grins breaking across their face as the shouted in sync. "The dam joke!"

Annabeth rolled her eyes at the trio before explaining to the group. "Sometime on the quest they came up with this stupid joke and will never explain it to anyone."

"You mean dam joke Annabeth." Thalia corrected, grinning wildly, an expression matched by her co-conspirators.

"It was also the first time Percy and I met." Rachel added, scaring those nearby her as no one had expected her to speak. "He swung his sword at me."

"I said I was sorry! I thought you were a skeleton!" Percy whined.

"I sneezed!" Rachel laughed at him, the rest of the group joining in.

"Moving on." Annabeth decided, stopping the pair before they could go any further. "The next summer Percy, Grover, Tyson and I went into the Labyrinth to try and stop an attack on camp. That was a nightmare from start to finish but we met several people; mainly Nico (who had run away last summer), Rachel and Calypso." She smiled at the three, offering apologies. All three had had a crush on Percy during that quest - gods what a mess.

"We have to mention Rachel, our brilliant mortal guide through the labyrinth, threw a sparkly blue plastic hairbrush at the newly re-formed Titan lord Kronos to great effect." Percy added, giving a fake bow to Rachel, who pretended to show off.

"You weren't kidding about that?" Reyna asked, she thought the oracle had been kidding about using the hairbrush as a weapon when they first met. Rachel just shook her head, smiling widely.

"Were you successful? Did you stop the attack?" Piper asked, unsure as she had definitely heard some rumours about a battle.

Those that had been there during the battle looked down in remembrance of those lost. Annabeth answered, quietly "No, we didn't succeed but they can't use that entrance ever again." Sad silence sat over the clearing for a moment before Leo broke it.

"You mentioned smaller quests? And that's only four quests."

Percy nodded at the younger boy. "Yeah my last big quest was with Hazel and Frank. The one to Alaska to free Thanatos." He nodded his head towards Hazel and Frank. the trio grinned at each other remembering the better moments of the quest. "As for the smaller ones, I can't technically speak about most of them but it was usually things like finding a god's missing item or helping a friend, or fighting a specific monster." Hermes had mad him promise to never tell anyone about his missing sceptre, he didn't want to break anymore of Clarisse's trust by mentioning the chariot, he didn't want to bring up Beckendorf as that would ruin the mood, he couldn't mention the Egyptians yet (Annabeth and him had agreed on that - they were waiting for it to be relevant) and Apollo's lyre had just been plain embarrassing.

The conversation dissolved after that, going into stories from everyone about other quests. Comparing tales of first monsters and best monsters. Plus other embarrassing tales and random stories from life at both camps. Overall it was an amazing night, everyone was in a brilliant mood as they reluctantly headed back to their cabins (having to sneak past the Harpies as they were out way past curfew).

As he walked back to his cabin, holding hands with Annabeth, he was some of the happiest he had been in months. He was even relieved to find that for most of the night all his smiles and laughs were genuine. These people didn't care about his past, they didn't think it made him weak, they thought it made him strong. These people weren't his friends, they were his family and he loved them all.


End file.
